Posts Tagged ‘EPA regulatory burden’

WASHINGTON — President Obama in recent days has been announcing muscular executive actions to address climate change, making good on his promise to act on pressing problems “with or without Congress.” On Monday, the Supreme Court will consider the limits of that approach, in a case on greenhouse gas emissions.

The justices are poised to decide whether the Obama administration went too far in trying to regulate emissions from stationary sources like power plants. In the process, they are likely to weigh in on a central Republican critique of Mr. Obama: that he is misusing his executive authority. (more…)

“Dedicated public servants” lock up lands and resources, lock down job and economic recovery

OPINION

by Paul Driessen

President Obama insists he is determined to create jobs in America. He recently announced the creation of “promise zones” for five communities around the nation and a “manufacturing institute” aimed at fostering more high-paying jobs in energy efficiency. He’s says he has “a pen and a phone” to “sign executive orders and take executive actions that move the ball,” where Congress has failed to implement policies he believes are needed.

Unfortunately, the executive orders and actions Mr. Obama seems to have in mind will do little to create jobs beyond the Washington Beltway – and much to do the opposite. An obvious example is his EPA’s plan to impose additional carbon dioxide emission restrictions, to save the planet from global warming, climate change, climate disruption, extreme weather or whatever term alarmists are using these days. (more…)

The Environmental Protection Agency has been in a full assault on the U.S. economy since the 1980s when the global warming hoax was initiated. It has been assisted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.

To put it in other terms, our own government has engaged in lying to Americans and the result has been the expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars on something that was not happening and is not happening.

On January 22, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released the deposition transcript of former senior EPA official John Beale. After defrauding the agency of nearly $900,000 and spending weeks and months away from his office by claiming he was on assignment for the CIA, the transcript contained a bombshell. (more…)

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, made the following statement regarding the proposed rule from September 2012 to regulate carbon emissions from new power plants, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally published in the Federal Register today.

“In typical EPA fashion, they’re putting the cart before the horse to advance their environmental policy agenda,” said Vitter. “They’re moving forward with a controversial rule to regulate carbon based on technology that isn’t commercially available. Not only is this wrongheaded, it’s beyond the scope of their legal authority.” (more…)

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, made the following statement regarding the semiannual Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Unified Agenda), which was released on November 26, 2013. The Fall 2013 Agenda lays out 134 rules specific to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including 2014 deadlines to finalize standards for Cooling Water Intake structures, the Tier 3 gasoline rule, and revisions to the definition of solid waste, as well as deadlines to propose greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for existing power plants and fine particulate matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) implementation requirements. (more…)

Today, the House Energy & Commerce Committee held a hearing on the administration’s climate policies. Although 13 agencies were invited to testify, the administration provided only two witnesses: EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

A notable exchange occurred about two hours and sixteen minutes into the hearing between McCarthy and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.). You can watch the segment on Youtube.

Through persistent questioning, Pompeo spotlighted a key fact well-known to the climate cognoscenti but not to the general public. Even assuming climate change is as bad as the global warming movement says it is, the administration’s policies will have no discernible effect on climate change and produce no identifiable benefit to public health and welfare. (more…)

Chemophobic anti-pesticide groups are at it again. This time they’re attacking a widely used and safe new insecticide, but their assertions and real agendas are nothing new.

Radical environmentalism rose to ascendancy on opposition to pesticides, specifically DDT. “If the environmentalists win on DDT,” Environmental Defense Fund scientist Charles Wurster told the Seattle Times in 1969, “they will achieve a level of authority they have never had before.” Using Rachel Carson’s often inaccurate book Silent Spring to drive a nasty campaign, they succeeded in getting the Environmental Protection Agency to ban US production and use of DDT in 1972, leading to a de facto global ban even to combat malaria. (more…)

Vitter Warns Louisiana of EPA’s Secret “Sue and Settle” Deals, Could Impact State

Says EPA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are colluding with environmental groups

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) is warning of more secret “sue and settle” deals with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and environmental groups. In a letter today, Vitter encourages Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell to join the 13 states’ AGs who recently filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with EPA asking for any and all correspondence between EPA and a list of 80 environmental, labor union and public interest organizations that had been party to litigation since the start of the Obama Administration.

“The collusion between federal bureaucrats and far-left environmental organizations entering legal agreements under a shroud of secrecy is the opposite of a transparent government,” Vitter said. “This is a problem across the country, but could quickly become a threat to Louisianans if we see the full weight of the EPA and Fish and Wildlife Service come crashing down on private landowners.”

Vitter is encouraging Caldwell to join the other states’ AGs, and is also encouraging the inclusion of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in their investigation. The Fish and Wildlife Service was not included in the original FOIA request. In his letter, Vitter also highlights a specific recent example where the Fish and Wildlife Service entered an agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity that could impact private property owners across the South and in Louisiana with new rules on habitat for endangered species on private property because private property owners will have few resources to fight any legal challenge of a massive federal agency.

A copy of Vitter’s letter is below.

January 22, 2013

James D. “Buddy” Caldwell

Attorney General

State of Louisiana

1885 N. Third Street

Baton Rouge, LA 70802

Dear A.G. Buddy Caldwell:

I write asking your personal assistance regarding a matter imperative to Louisiana’s economy and private property owners across our great state. My concern stems from the non-transparent nature of litigation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and specifically the entering of consent decrees through a practice referred to as “sue and settle,” and sometimes referred to as “friendly lawsuits.”

Under this practice, radical environmental groups file lawsuits against a federal agency in a friendly court demanding the agency take action. Rather than allowing the entire process to play out, the Department of Justice and the agency being sued settles the lawsuit by agreeing to move forward with the requested action. While the environmental group is given a seat at the negotiating table, private property owners and other affected residents are not given the opportunity to object to these settlements.

On August 10, 2012 thirteen state Attorney Generals filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with EPA asking for any and all correspondence between EPA and a list of 80 environmental, labor union and public interest organizations that had been party to litigation since the start of the Obama administration. My specific request is that you intervene in these efforts and expand the investigation beyond the EPA to include the USFWS. The collusion between federal bureaucrats and the organizations entering consent agreements under a shroud of secrecy represents the antithesis of a transparent government, and your participation in the FOIA request will help Louisianans understand the process by which these settlements were reached.

Using these “sue and settle” agreements, a significant portion of regulatory policy is being fashioned behind closed doors with groups that are clearly antagonistic to the economic health of the United States and Louisiana. This regulatory policy is having a significant, negative impact on states and private property owners. A specific recent example involves the settlement agreement between the USFWS and the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group who has made clear its goal is to use the litigation process to force species listings. The agreement to make listing determinations on hundreds of species will adversely impact private property owners across the South and the state of Louisiana with new rules on habitat for endangered species on private property. Unfortunately, most private property owners will not have the resources to fight the legal and regulatory onslaught of a massive federal agency.

As the new ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, I plan to investigate this “sue and settle” practice using all available tools to bring to light this often abused path to regulatory influence. Private interest groups using lawsuits that are settled in secret, with minimal to no input from the regulated community, small businesses and private property owners should no longer go on without oversight.

As the AG, your intervention and requested expansion of the FOIA request can help to investigate and shed light on what our federal agencies are doing to undermine Louisiana and the people of our great state. I am warily confident that both EPA and USFWS will shun all efforts to open the doors on these practices, the negotiations, and the communications between agency staff and outside groups regarding “sue and settle” agreements. However, I request that you stay vigilant and join the consorted effort of the 13 other state AGs working to make public the collusion between our federal government and certain interest groups.

If I can be of any assistance please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Lisa Jackson, a former engineer and head of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection has been Obama’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator through his first term. Jackson led her state’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and has aligned herself with militant eco-groups in every job-killing green agenda item imaginable. Her radical green activism under Obama has raised suspicion about the negative economic impacts of EPA regulations — a recent Rasmussen poll indicates that only 39% approve of the EPA, while 34% disapprove and 27% are undecided. Much of Jackson’s ambitious regulatory portfolio has ultimately failed in judicial review. Jackson has admitted to unlawfully operating anonymous e-mail accounts in conducting EPA government business, and is presently under Congressional investigation for such excesses. (more…)

One issue that has been noticeably absent from the Republican platform this election season is any discussion of the Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It didn’t even come up at the Republican National Convention a couple of weeks ago. If the omission was an oversight, it was a big one. If it was intentional, it’s cause for concern. (more…)

The Obama Administration, at this sensitive time, is playing down its expansive regulatory agenda, but some insiders are predicting a new onslaught of costly rules—including the imposition of cap-and-trade schemes on industry.

Although Congress rejected cap-and-trade legislation in 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) remains intent on effectively rationing the use of fossil fuels. A court ruling earlier this year upheld the agency’s “finding” that emissions of carbon dioxide pose a threat to public health. The ruling has only emboldened the EPA’s regulatory impulses. According to Carol Browner, former administrator of the agency, the EPA is now poised for “piecemeal progress on cap-and-trade.” (more…)

This time the recently resigned EPA’s Region 6 administrator will eagerly attack another fossil fuel, joining the litigious environmental group as part of its “Beyond Coal” campaign. If there was any question that Armendariz unfairly regulated the gas and oil businesses under his authority in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and other neighboring states, the Sierra Club announcement left no doubt.

“I know how important it is to transition to cleaner sources of energy that don’t pollute the air that our children breathe,” he said, “and I’m proud to be working on a campaign with a proven track record for success.”

In its latest move to drive up the cost of energy to consumers, businesses, and manufacturers, the Obama EPA March 27 issued a final CO2 cap on emissions from electric utilities. EPA’s action will effectively ban the construction of new coal-fired power plants and likely cause rolling blackouts.

In its latest move to drive up the cost of energy to consumers, businesses, and manufacturers, the Obama EPA March 27 issued a final rule regulating greenhouse-gas emissions from electric utilities. EPA’s action will effectively ban the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

Under the rule, no new power plant will be allowed to emit more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced. On average, U.S. coal plants emit 1,768 pounds of CO2 per megawatt of electricity. The rule requires future plants to use as yet non-existent carbon capture and control technologies to cut their emissions to the new standard. With no technology available to bring down CO2 emissions to the new standard, EPA, in the name of combating climate change, is effectively telling the coal industry, which produces 55 percent of our nation’s electricity, that its days are numbered.

The new rule exempts plants that are either under construction or in the permitting process. Existing coal plants have been under relentless regulatory assault by the Obama EPA, which has subjected them to stringent mercury emissions standards and cross-state pollution rules. As a result, about 13 percent of existing coal-fired power plants are expected to shut down in the near future. (more…)

The Environmental Protection Agency will issue the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants as early as Tuesday, according to several people briefed on the proposal. The move could end the construction of conventional coal-fired facilities in the United States.

The proposed rule — years in the making and approved by the White House after months of review — will require any new power plant to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced. The average U.S. natural gas plant, which emits 800 to 850 pounds of CO2 per megawatt, meets that standard; coal plants emit an average of 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt. (more…)

On Dec. 16, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson released new Clean Air Act National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants. Once again, she touted the supoosedly huge benefits of controlling emissions of mercury and other air toxics from coal- and oil-fired power plants and electric generating units (EGUs).

This final rule will be one of the most expensive ever devised by EPA. The actual benefits, however, are minimal to imaginary. Americans should no longer tolerate being penalized by the “Extreme Punishment Authority.”

EPA itself says the purported “hazards to public health” from mercury and non-mercury emissions from American EGUs are “anticipated to remain after imposition” of the new regulations. (more…)